Why the Higgs Boson Discovery Was So Important

The 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson particle was one of the most exciting scientific discoveries in physics. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, explains why the Higgs boson is so critical to our understanding of the universe.

Video Summary

Over the last 120 years, physicists have pieced together the Standard Model, a theoretical ‘picture’ of how the universe works. The Higgs boson discovery was the final piece in the Standard Model puzzle. However, the full picture of the universe is incomplete. The discovery of the Higgs Boson particle, with the use of the Large Hadron Collider, offers an opportunity to try to locate ‘dark sector’ or ‘hidden sector’ particles. It is hoped that observing collisions of Higgs boson particles will start to show hints of these unknown particles, making our incomplete picture of the universe a little more complete.